Services Marketing Plan: Faith Lutheran Church

Tessa Larson University of Denver Professor Burnett May 2008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................................................5 MISSION STATEMENT ...........................................................................................................................................................6 SITUATION ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................................................................................6 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ........................................................................................................................................................6 Consumer Trends.................................................................................................................................................................6 Economy ..............................................................................................................................................................................8 Social Trends .......................................................................................................................................................................8 Giving Trends ......................................................................................................................................................................9 Competition .......................................................................................................................................................................10 Demographics....................................................................................................................................................................11 Psychographics of the Church...........................................................................................................................................11 Technology ........................................................................................................................................................................12 INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT .......................................................................................................................................................13 Financial............................................................................................................................................................................13 Organizational Structure...................................................................................................................................................15 Marketing Programs .........................................................................................................................................................16 Products and Services .......................................................................................................................................................17 Demographics....................................................................................................................................................................18 Laws and Ethics.................................................................................................................................................................18 Changes in the Church ......................................................................................................................................................19 SWOT ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................................................20 TARGET MARKET SELECTIONS ......................................................................................................................................21 MARKETING OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................................................21 STRATEGIES ...........................................................................................................................................................................23 COST CUTTING ........................................................................................................................................................................23 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ..............................................................................................................................................23 MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS.................................................................................................................................................23 GOING GLOBAL .......................................................................................................................................................................24 MARKETING TOOLS ................................................................................................................................................................24 Product ..............................................................................................................................................................................26 Value..................................................................................................................................................................................31 Distribution........................................................................................................................................................................35 Communication..................................................................................................................................................................39 People ................................................................................................................................................................................44 Processes ...........................................................................................................................................................................47 Physical Attributes.............................................................................................................................................................52 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................................................52 WORKS CITED........................................................................................................................................................................54 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................ 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Executive Summary Faith Lutheran Church was created in 1984 in Clive, IA from a merge of two local congregations and is currently associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The church has around 2,000 members and revenues of about $1.1 million. Currently, there is no marketing plan intact even though huge growth and major changes are occurring within the church without one. This project is a comprehensive marketing plan including a situation analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, definition of target market, creation of marketing objective, and marketing strategies to achieve those objectives. The strategies are traditional marketing tactics with an emphasis on service products. The situation analysis found that consumers are leaning towards technology and socially conscious based companies. Also found is that a majority of people are satisfied with the role of the church and also are looking to become more involved when giving to charity. Internally, Faith is continually growing but has yet to reach its potential. Currently the church is expanding its building, re-organizing its council structure, and creating a database for volunteer information. The SWOT revealed: Strengths- worship, programming, financial resources, staff Weaknesses- organizational structure, space for programming, weekly worship attendance Opportunities- growing families, increasing young adults, people searching for spiritual fulfillment Threats- other churches, mobile community, time restrictions

The target market was established as:

Young Families, aged 25-40 Children under 10 Junior High, aged 11- 14

Intermediate Families aged 35-55 Junior High, aged 11- 14 Senior High. Aged 14-18

Seniors, age 60+

The objectives are to: Introduction This report was create to evaluate Faith Lutheran Church and its current situation and changes that can be made to create a more effective service product. Included in this document are the 1) Situation Analysis, 2) SWOT, 3) Target Market, 4) Marketing Objectives and 5) Marketing Strategies. The situation analysis includes aspects of the external environment that affect the church, the community, and society as a whole, as well as the internal environment making up basics regarding the churchs current situation. The SWOT analysis states the internal Strengths of the company; the internal Weaknesses within the church; the external Opportunities Faith can take advantage of; and the external Threats that might affect the organization. The target market shows what groups Faith is looking to reach through its ministry. Marketing objectives specify goals Increase percentage of weekly worshippers Develop a database to track volunteers Increase annual giving as a percentage of income Push to create and implement a new organizational structure

through who, what, how, and when things will happen. Finally, the marketing strategies are steps that can be taken to accomplish the objectives. Mission Statement A family of Faith in Christ, called to proclaim the Faith, grow in Faith, and live in Faith. Situation Analysis External Environment Consumer Trends Many companies focused in market research attempt to predict what consumers will be interested in to create innovative products before consumers even realize what they want. Some of these ideas come true and others do not. A few consumer trends that are predicted or already occurring are: Hip and stylish baby clothes. Generation Xs are now having kids and wanting them to look good. Local produce. People are more aware of carbon footprints and realize that local products require less transportation and are also fresher. Healthy technology. The population is looking for more and newer ways to get fit and track it. Engineered pets. Dog lovers are looking toward extremely specific breeding to obtain desired characteristics. Experiential gifts. Todays consumers not only compare what the Jones have but compare what they are doing.

Innovative travel. Not only is the world becoming smaller through technology, more people are traveling and traveling farther (1, p.27).

Trust experience over prestige. Consumers are looking to the experts for quality products rather than designer labels.

There is a huge gap between the few health nuts and majority of fast food consumers. Many customers choose fast food for convenience and also that it fits their budget.

Eco-friendly ideas will become so popular they no longer are a competitive advantage.

Consumers will start demanding that companies reduce its carbon footprint. Male consumers will gain influence in buying decisions. Food promoting beauty and health benefits will be on the rise. Consumers will demand purity and safety in their products. Companies must be transparent with its processes to gain consumer trust.

Products involving sound will continue to grow, i.e. music greeting cards. Customers are looking for pure brands that match their lifestyle, beliefs and social conscientiousness (2, p.18). Consumers are more than ever looking toward not only environmentally

conscious companies but also socially conscious companies that will do the right thing. The world is becoming smaller by the minute with new and increased technology spreading globally as well as world travel becoming more common. Consumers are also becoming aware of quality and safety in products they are purchasing. Overall, consumers are becoming more aware of the world around them and about the

companies that they purchase from and companies need to be aware of this since consumer trends/buying is what drives the economy. Economy Many changes in the economy have occurred over the past year/few years. Our country is slipping into a recession if not already there. The sub prime mortgage loan crisis is continuing to skyrocket out of control. Savings rates are negative. Energy and gas prices are skyrocketing with no end in sight. Despite the increased spending on the war in Iraq and continually lowering interest rates, the economy continues to slip. A deficit in the GDP has occurred every year Bush has been in office increasing the national debt to around nine trillion dollars. A slow economy means layoffs, which leads to lower consumer spending, then less output and then less profits. When money becomes tight in personal budgets one of the first things to go is charitable giving because it is viewed as an unnecessary cost. Consumer trends and the economy have a push/pull relationship and if trends in the economy continue over time they will eventually affect social trends. Social Trends Todays society is constantly on the move and taking the lead from Gen Y by becoming continuously connected. Social networking has grown from MySpace and Facebook to business and everyday citizens. Blogging has become a part of the business world and brought people together with common interests. Internet dating is continuing to grow as people have less and less time to actually meet people and get to know each other. World travel has become as common as trips to Disneyland. Another

social trend is that people are more involved and aware of the companies they donate to, more of these trends are discussed in the next section on giving trends. Giving Trends For a non-profit like the Faith Lutheran giving trends are essential to understand because donations are its revenue. Overall, there are three forms of giving: treasure ($), time, and talent. There are also three main reasons people give: personal experience, being forced to give, and learning to give (3). Current trends that are occurring in philanthropic giving are: An increase in interest for donating internationally will occur with all types of donors. Flash giving that is triggered by national disasters and war etc has the possibility to engage and empower many donors. This may allow many donors an entry into giving that will continue to other organizations. Donors will be more and more attracted to self-formed learning and giving communities that create connections and promote exploration. Increasing amount of donors will complete all of their giving through the Internet. People want a streamlined, constantly available, custom interface for giving forcing non-profits to move more towards business-like operations. Donors want be a part of the organizations leadership of the institutions they donate to. With leadership or involvement giving of time and money will increase.

Todays society is looking to give with time and talent with hand-on experience, which also usually ends up with giving of treasure as well. Also, people are looking for easier and more convenient ways to give. All of the above trends are currently seen in todays adult population and will only increase in popularity as Generation X and Y grow older and gain leadership in organizations (4, p.7-8). Also, society is starting to look for the best of the best to donate to, making competition between non-profits grow. Competition When a church considers competition it avoids naming other churches as rivals because technically members are still receiving spiritual guidance through another church. Still, there is one mega church that is five miles away that has drawn a few previous members of Faith as well as an unknown amount of potential members. Another form of competition for a church is any other non-profit business that Faiths members can donate to. With the advance of Internet technology giving can be accomplished anytime anywhere without leaving ones desk. The final form of competition is any other time commitment or community activity that members can participate in. Faith offers an extensive amount of participation opportunities but many members just do not have the time to worship, attend education hour, serve on a committee as well as be in a choir. Another aspect of competition to consider is how homogenous Clive, IA is and therefore that Christians have many opportunities to join other congregations that are similar to them.

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Demographics From a selected segment of Clive, IA and its surrounding area the following relevant numbers have been gathered from the Census and listed below, for further information reference Appendix A. Population: 153,388 Median Age: 35.3 Race- White: 93.1% Total Households: 62,622 Population Age 25+ BA Degree: 30.9% Median Fulltime Income: $39,076 Median Household Income: $55,710 Nearly half of the population is between 25 and 54. Children are about 21% of the population matching with the statistic that from married couple households, 49.4% have kids and 50.6% do not. 73.5% of the population over 25 has attended some college if not obtained some kind of higher degree. Judging from this information Clive is a place of white, affluent, well-educated married couples and families. From nationwide statistics this demographic is also at a minimum affiliated if not a participant in a church regardless of if they participate or how they feel about the church as a whole. Psychographics of the Church According to statistics six in ten Americans believe religion to be very important and another 25% believe it to be fairly important. Eight in ten Americans are affiliated with the Christian religion and 50% of those are Protestants. The number of

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unchurched individuals, those who only attend church on holidays or special occasions, have grown from 21% in 1991 to 34% in 2004. Tithing is the primary source of income for a church but the percent of donations relative to incomes has fallen. In 1998 the average family income of Catholic homes was $43,000 but only .6% of that was tithed. Membership did have an increase in the mid 2000s due to September 11th and the Iraq war people started to look for something more meaningful (5, pp.1-3). Overall, 56% are satisfied with the influence of the church. Thirty-nine percent want the church to continue with the same amount of influence, 27% want more, and 32% want to see organized religion to have less influence. A majority of the population is satisfied with the role of the church and is more likely to want more or same influence if already attending a church (6, pp. 8-11). Regardless of the churchs acceptance currently, in order to change along with society churches must attempt to adapt to the technology generation. Technology It has been well established a long time ago that technology is here to stay but that changes are constantly occurring. To be competitive in any market companies must be willing to adopt new technology with changing innovations and societies. Some of the newest technology trends are listed below: Blogging software will soon be compatible with other software. Video blogging will become even more practical and universal. VoIP will work with even more applications. Mesh technology will enable highly distributed bandwidth.

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The importance of location-based services will become evident with growing wireless capabilities.

Tags will not only go on photos but on everything to aid retrieval and identification.

Open document formats will become more popular and soon be demanded for everything/everyone.

Standards will change over time and take over propriety with software, hardware and everything in between.

Broadband will soon be preferred more than power lines Mobile devices will become the primary form of communication with todays on-the-go society (7, p.29). The trends in technology match with the social trend of becoming continuously

connected. The changes in technology allow people to communicate more but also change the way people communicate. Many people no longer have face-to-face conversations or even phone calls. These trends change our social constructs and norms also change how we learn because of online textbooks and classes. Faith Lutheran can use these changes in technology along with all of the other external environmental changes to adapt its internal environment. Internal Environment Financial Appendix B shows the ELCA Congregational Trend Report from 2007. According the report, Faith Lutheran Church generated $1,111,519 of revenue in 2007 and had total expenses at $1,109,283. 9.2% of the churchs expenses were allocated to 13

mission support, which is also 10% of the churchs revenue/regular giving. The regular giving per person has significantly dropped in the past year especially when converted to 2000 dollars which might be associated with the slow decline of percent attending worship over the past seven years. Contributions to the church can be divided into a number of areas. First are general donations that are non-designated. These make up nearly 90% of all revenue. The second source of income are designated donations that go to specific events or programs, this makes up almost 10% of the rest of the income. The final source of income is very small and is from rental properties and facility usage that makes up less than a half of a percent. See Appendix C. Each year produces an increase in giving and in the past three years Faith Lutheran raised an average of 117% above pledged donations. Even though revenues exceed the amount pledged donations are still only about 4.6% of the median fulltime income of pledging members. If just the current pledging members would tithe the recommended 10% of income (based off of census median income) revenue would be $2,078,843, which is a 216% increase. See Appendix C & D. Appendix C shows the annual report from 2006. This shows total revenues at $1,097,558.88 and expenses at $1,077,564.64 leaving $19,994.24 excess. In the disbursement listings is no direct allocation toward marketing but one can assume that advertising, postage, paper, printing, and part of each program costs go toward marketing. All of the revenues for the church are divided and disbursed among the different ministries that are explored in the next section.

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Organizational Structure Currently the organizational structure of Faith Lutheran is centered around every primary ministry paired with a board with a chairperson who serves on the church council. See Appendix E. With expanding ministries the boards are reaching capacity and can no longer effectively serve church members. The Foundational Support Ministry Team has considered three options: one is to keep current boards, two is to increase number of boards and council members, and third is to create a nonrepresentative council. With the non-representative council, the direction the Ministry Team chose, the council becomes a board of directors focusing on finances and establishing key overall goals for the church. Separate groups and teams will be set up and assigned to a staff liaison that will be available to serve the group. These groups will be based on members dependable strengths and passions. The exact form of communication between the groups and organization of the overall structure of the system is still being formed with the Foundational Support Ministry Team (FSMT). This new form of organizational structure allows for more growth as well as tears down the silos of the core ministry areas allowing the council and staff to be people to facilitate ministry rather than dictating it. See Appendix F for FSMT report. Staff, both full and part time is as follows: Rev. Dave Nerdig .................................................. Senior Pastor Angie Larson...............Director of Youth and Family Ministries Tom Sletto......................................Director of Music Ministries Bev Duffy.......................................................................Organist

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Pam Ward................................ Director of Children's Ministries Pam Larson ..............................Director of Sharing the Ministry Melinda Littler and Kelli Punelli Early Childhood Coordinator Melissa Dale..........5th through 8th Grade Ministries Coordinator Heidi LaBounty............................................. Preschool Director Kate Boonstra....................................... K.I.C.K. Music Director Steve and Susan Forest .................................Business Managers Lynette Sorensen................................. Publications Coordinator Trish Johnson .....................................................Office Assistant Sandy Niland.................................Faith Feast Coordinator/Chef Ruth West.................................................................... Custodian Kala Zanoni........................................................ Office Manager Jan Stegeman ............................................. Interim Parish Nurse Marketing Programs Current marketing programs at Faith include direct marketing for events and programs in the forms of phone calls, emails, and flyers, as well as monthly newsletters. The only advertising Faith takes part in is small ads run for Christmas and Easter service. The church has a website outlining programs and offering background. Word of mouth marketing is constantly going on within groups of members and also with the outlying community.

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An unconventional way of marketing, yet extremely effective, is through the youth. Many children or teens will bring friends to youth programming and the kids will enjoy it so much that the family, over time, joins the church and becomes involved. Because kids become involved, families become involved, and when families become involved they give to the church. Another similar draw is parents wanting children to be involved in Sunday school, and then the parents attend service, or adult education. Faith is currently attempting to market towards this by offering two services/Sunday school hours to offer more options to families wanting to attend multiple Sunday morning activities, which will diversify the products and services that Faith offers. Products and Services The Visitor Booklet in Appendix G overviews all of the services that Faith Lutheran has available for customers. General areas of service include worship, adult opportunities, gifted for ministry, musical opportunities, childrens ministries, early childhood ministries, youth and family ministries, outreach ministries and new member classes. Faith attempts to provide services for everyone at the church but still have some people who are not provided for. Young, singles do not have many options to participate at Faith but the recent addition and popularity of Guys Night Out shows that options for that demographic are desired. Also college students previously involved in the church but currently at school are a difficult target market to attain because they are busy with other activities, often far away, and usually extremely busy when in town. Overall, Faith has a wide base of programs that members can both participate and volunteer with inside

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and outside the church. Faith attempts to offer programs for every demographic segment of members and concentrate on the more popular groups like Early Childhood Ministry. Demographics Faith Lutherans member demographics match fairly well with the amount and diversity of programs offered. Age breakdown is fairly even from age six to 65 being about five to eight percent in every five year bracket Ages zero to five consist of 10% of the church population Average age is 33 50% of Faiths members are married Faith has similar numbers overall to the local demographics but also has some distinct differences. Two-thirds of households do not have children at Faith. Children/teens make up about 30% of the congregation and ages 25-55 make up 40%. The percent of white population rises from 93% locally to 99% within Faith. Regardless of the age or race of members the Constitution and Bylaws are the same for Faith Lutheran and the ELCA. Further numbers of Faiths demographics can be viewed in Appendix H. Laws and Ethics Faith Lutheran has a Constitution and set of Bylaws that is based off of the ELCAs own Constitution and Bylaws. The constitution outlines the churchs purpose, allocated powers and the relationship to the ELCA. The bylaws consist of membership, the congregation, the church council, officers and committees, pastoral ministry and auxiliary

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organizations. If major changes in the church are to be made to the structure of the church there are guidelines in the document to make amendments. See Appendix I for more information. Changes in the Church There are a number of changes that are currently occurring or being planned for the future. One is the expansion of the current building to increase education rooms, include a new youth and family ministry space, upgraded preschool area, enlarged nursery, as well as, office location and double parking lot capacity. This plan will fix the current space problems as well as plan for future growth. The plan was voted on at the February 18th, 2007 congregational meeting. The cost is expected to be 5.1 million dollars; four of are projected to be from the three-year capital campaign and then the rest taken out through responsible debt (8). Another change that is currently being brainstormed with the Foundational Support Ministry Team is to reorganize the roles of staff, council and boards. The team has established that the current boards are reaching capacity and are limited by ministry titles. It was also established that creating more boards would just make council achieve less and become completely ineffective. The current proposal that is being discussed on implementation tactics is a system that uses teams that work with staff members and the council becomes a board of directors dealing with big picture visions for the church. Teams have no defined leader, designated weekly meetings or specified length of terms. This allows teams to be more effective and efficient to accomplish the goals of the team and be finished. These teams allow people to work with their dependable strengths and their passions as well as fitting it in their schedule (9).

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The final change Faith is attempting to implement is to create a more effective way to organize volunteers. A team is being formed to conduct individual interviews with incoming new members as well as the entire 9th grade confirmation class assessing dependable strengths, gifts, and volunteer interests. This paired with the current database of ministry opportunity cards that members fill out of preferred volunteering positions and dependable strengths on file of some members will create more effective parings. Faith can make this change go even further to create a comprehensive volunteer coordination program SWOT Analysis S. Strengths W. Dynamic worship Diverse programs Financial resources available Excellence and passionate staff

Weaknesses Lacking streamline organizational structure Parking and facility space are limited Low weekly worship numbers

O.

Opportunities Growing number of families in the area Increasing amount of young adults looking for relational groups Raise in people looking for spiritual fulfillment

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T.

Threats Other larger, more contemporary churches in the area Mobility of the community Time restrictions of members

Target Market Selections After analyzing the demographics of the area and the members of Faith Lutheran Church four target markets have been selected: Young Families, aged 25-40 Children under 10 Junior High, aged 11- 14

Intermediate Families aged 35-55 Junior High, aged 11- 14 Senior High. Aged 14-18

Seniors, age 60+

Marketing Objectives Increase percentage of members worshipping weekly by 5% over the next three years to create a total of 42% worshipping, then re-evaluate and discuss further objectives to increase worship participation. This would add a total of about 100 worshippers per week each year. Creating 860 worshippers a week at the end of three years. See Appendix D. Enhance the current volunteer database to include all past and current involvement, evaluation results, ministry opportunities, dependable strengths, and personal interview

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results. Starting with a personal interview team organized by May 2009 and completing training as well as create group objectives of penetration levels and completion dates by September 2009. Also, the improved database should be set up to run by September 2009 as well. Increase members annual giving as a percentage of their income from the current 4.6% of median fulltime income to 6% over a three year period. With an increase of only .4% the first year and .5% every other year. For each pledging member this would only be an increase of $156 the first year and an increase of $195 the following two years. At the end of 3 years this increase will raise revenues to $1,250,761, an increase of $291,038. See Appendix D. Push the FSMT to create an organizational structure for the new council/team dynamic within the next nine months to a year that includes a two-year implementation plan with quarterly evaluations and adjustments in order to have fully functioning unique organizational structure by the end of three years. These four objectives will build on each other and together to help the church to grow. Executing a new organizational structure based on teams will increase members volunteer involvement because teams not only b are one of many forms of volunteering but teams will create more effective programming organization for members to volunteer with. With increased volunteering through assistance of teams there will be increased worship because increased program involvement raises worship participation. Both increased program participation and worship attendance increases donations because 80% of volunteers become donors (3).

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Strategies Cost Cutting Cost cutting could be considered as a way to increase revenue effectively especially for a non-profit that is tight on money like Faith Lutheran. Consultants could be hired to analyze where costs could be reduced and measures could be taken to lower disbursements. At the same time, if one looks at the division of disbursement chart in Appendix C it shows that payroll expense makes up over half of disbursements. Whoever attempts to monitor cost cutting must consider the ratio of money lost by staff taking the time to find ways to cut costs compared to the actual costs cut. Cost cutting is very effective for some companies but others may consider researching and developing new programs to offer innovative solutions. Research and Development Research and development is extremely effective to help businesses stay on top of innovation. Even the business of faith requires research in ways to effectively communicate and serve the congregation. Faith Lutheran should constantly be looking at research that is being conducted on the best way to reach member and fulfill spiritual needs through continuing education for both staff and members. At the same time, Faiths own resources would not be effectively used conducting its own research and development unless a merger or acquisition occurs to pool resources together. Mergers and Acquisitions Faith actually originated from a merger in 1984 between Advent Lutheran Church and Messiah Lutheran Church (Appendix G). Currently, Faith has more than enough members and programs but is lacking space to conduct ministry. This is why Faith is working to

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expand the church building to provide more space and allow the church to grow. Another option to expand other than a merger or acquisition is to explore global options of development. Going Global Kifula Lutheran Parish is Faith Lutherans companion congregation in Ugweno, Tanzania. This partnership follows the shared ministry of imani moja- one faith. In January 2005 Pastor Dave Nerdig and Ryan Larson visited Tanzania to see Pastor Miraro and Kifula. In July 2006 Anderson and Janeth Mockray as well as Pastor and Mrs. Miraro visited Iowa for three weeks. In January 2007 Jerry Waage the Council President and Brian Turner the Outreach Board Chair visited Tanzania and Kifulas new minister Pastor Kissimbo (8). This partnership has allowed the entire congregations faith to grow as well as cultural and worldviews to flourish. The final strategy to create a more effective and efficient company is to use marketing tools to analyze how the company is and should be performing. Marketing Tools There are seven tools in the service marketing that are used as a combination to promote and grow service based companies. These tactics will be thoroughly explored in the following sections and are product, value, distribution, communication, people, process and physical evidence. There are also seven adjustments that can distinguish goods from services and can be changed to decrease the issues that arise from service products. The first adjustment is intangibility. Pure service products have no physical product to give to the consumer but there are changes that can be made to how business is conducted to give the illusion of a tangible product.

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The next adjustment is the issue of high customer involvement, which means that without the customer there is no product. This adjustment can be made by training both employees and customers about the involvement and make it a positive aspect of the product.

The third adjustment is the issue of control problems. Since service products critically depend on human interaction on both the staff and customer side there leave a lot of room for error. This adjustment attempts to create as many controls as possible without damaging the integrity of the product.

Difficulty of evaluation is another adjustment because services are so intangible it becomes difficult to assess. A lot of services are based on perceptions that are nearly impossible to regulate and very difficult to estimate. Companies must try to anticipate important points that the customer will key in on and also be very thorough following up with customers.

The fifth adjustment is that all pure services have no inventories because there are no tangible products. Because there is high customer involvement often there is an intense Just-In-Time inventory where the product is being produced and consumed at the exact same time. Companies must attempt to create the illusion of some kind of inventory for the customer.

The next adjustment is that there is a strict time criteria because both the customer and consumer needs to be present for the service to occur. A company must find ways to prolong this time criteria or create a way that the service can occur at the most convenient time for a consumer.

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The last adjustment is the high importance of contact points. Since services are so strongly based on human interaction the contact points in a service product can make or break a company. The more positive contact points the more successful a company will be.

Product A companys product includes many aspects but are the physical good features, quality level, accessories, packaging, warranties, product lines, and branding. When it comes to a church the product is faith. The ELCAs view of faith and a Christian life is that, Because of Jesus Christ, we believe that Christians are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live our lives in service to the world. Through acts of love and justice, worship and witness, we share Gods boundless love with the world (10). Faith Lutheran takes this calling and provides products for members to grow, learn and share in faith. To achieve the above goals of increasing participation in worship and pledging as well as changes and modifications of the volunteer coordination system and the current organizational structure the current products need to change through the seven strategic adjustments of service companies. Intangibility The tangible items from products that already exist are bulletins from weekly worship services, handouts or worksheets from both child and adult education, and CDs from the Soli Deo Musica. One area of ministry that is excellent at making the product of faith tangible are Childrens and Early Childhood Ministries with drawing of David and his sling or crafts taken home of Noahs arc. Adults would

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feel slightly ridiculous taking home a finger painting of the parting of the Red Sea to put on the fridge, but the kids have the right idea about creating tangibility with Faith. The Youth and Family Ministries program has a great way of making faith tangible with WHEAT cards that are the size of business cards that can be kept as a personal reminder or given to people. One way of creating tangibility with the congregation is to have them keep a faith diary of things they learned at every worship service, choir rehearsal, and council meeting. By writing revelations down it makes faith real. It also would be a great discussion topic for families and even friends. Inseparability Inseparability becomes tricky when it comes to products of the church because although one can commune with God at any time, when a member misses a church service there are many other aspects of Christianity they miss besides spending time with God. A way to lower the involvement level with products within the church is to make it easier to miss a week of worship or a session of a class. One option is to have an audio file or podcast the sermon from the previous week. That way people are not lost if they miss one sermon of a series or cannot attend for multiple weeks because of time constraints or health. This allows members to still have the connection with other people in the congregation who were there. Another idea is have the website software be simple enough that all of the staff can use it to post worksheets or notes from their classes so members can catch up if they were not able to attend.

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Evaluation To make sure the products Faith provides to its members are of the highest quality and fulfill the needs and wants of the congregation a system of evaluation should be set up for every product offered. A system can be set up to evaluate at the end of each class or at an appropriate time of the year (ex. the end of the Sunday School year, once a year for choir, following each new member class). For programs for children younger than 5 parents can complete evaluations and for all other programs both children and parents can complete evaluations. This can be an entirely paperless interaction if a company like SurveyMonkey is used that allows companies to create its own surveys online and electronically give you the responses for only $200 a year (11). This can be an effective way for staff to improve products and programs as well as give members a tangible way to assess their experience. Control Issues of control occur alongside with the problem with evaluation of a service product. Staff can attempt to create control by beginning with research on programs and products before implementing a new product. With the increasing amount of blogs on nearly every topic the staff at Faith can see what problems of control have occurred with similar programs and attempt to take measures to control them. Another common sense way to create control is to simply continuously communicate with members about what they are thinking or feeling about a program. By anticipating what might go wrong or what members will think can greatly increase control.

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Time Criteria To address the problem of strict time criteria with service products one should reference the ideas brought up in section a. intangibility with sermon recordings and worksheet postings. In todays society is becoming more and more busy but the day is still only 24 hours long. This means that sacrifices in commitments must be made. By podcasting the sermon and posting worksheets it allows members to experience the product even though they missed the actual event. This allows them to listen to the sermon on the way to work when they have nothing else to do or complete the worksheet at 11pm before they go to bed. This eliminates the need for both the customer and the company to be present for the product to be distributed. No Inventory Similar to the issue of time criteria, the lack of inventory means that all interactions of service products it is necessary for both the staff and the customer to be present for a transaction to occur. The solution of podcasting and website accessible worksheets allows members to receive products without the constant availability of staff. This does not solve the problem of the staff still having to give a sermon when there are only five people at church the morning of a blizzard, but it does give the customer the option to still receive the product/the sermon at a later time at their own convenience.

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Contact Points With a service product contact points are highly important. Each interaction a member has will affect their experience and their perception of the product they are receiving. One way to increase effectiveness of contact points is to make it a central emphasis to every staff member and volunteer that the contact they have with the customer during a transaction will affect their satisfaction. By constantly drilling this point home it will become intrinsic within the entire organization. There are very simple ways to increase contact points in regards to the customer and products. One way is to have staff learn names of members involved in a class very quickly. Linger after class, learn to be approachable, and do not be afraid to approach quite or reserved members. Finally, make a great last impression at the end of a product/program because that is what will be remembered. Also, try to include one last contact point the customer can take away like a book or handout.

One of Faiths strengths mentioned above in the SWOT is its excellent and diverse programming. One suggestion to improve Faiths product is to involve the congregation in individually having faith diaries that can create a tangible documentation of each members faith. Another suggestion is to podcast the sermon so members can subscribe weekly and listen on their own as well as offer class/workshop documents on the website. These changes will allow members to participate at Faith even if they missed a week as well as create an inventory and create a more flexible time criteria. Evaluations of nearly every product or program will be implemented easily through online questionnaires

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through SurveyMonkey. In order for all products to be successful and profitable for the church there must be value for the customer, which will be evaluated in the next section. Value Value, formerly known in the marketing mix as price, is calculated as perceived benefit divided by perceived price. In order to create the highest level of value a company must meet the customers needs and wants at the lowest costs. Four considerations are weighed when calculating value. First is the individuals notion of value, which can vary between any number of people. Second is competition and what other service providers can give the customer instead of the churchs product. Next is the switching cost and how much effort, time and money is needed to change to a different service provider. Last are the indirect costs that are unforeseen but nevertheless still occur because of choices the customer or service provider make (12). Intangibility Value is extremely difficult to define and even more difficult to create tangibility of the value of a service product. When considering the equation of value to increase the tangibility of the benefits of the service creates increased perceived benefits and therefore increased value. One suggestion create tangibility through products stated above was to have the congregation start a faith journal. This gives members a timeline of their faith and shows the benefits of their faith growing by participating at the church. Another small way of making faith tangible is the Faith rubber bracelets (green LiveStrong) that the youth sold. This was a constant reminder of the benefits of living and growing in faith. Another similar

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idea would be cross key chains or even as simple as Faith pens that increase perceived benefits by creating a tangible reminder of faith. Inseparability To increase the perceived benefits of members the church can get the congregation involved in leadership positions. By engaging members in areas they are passionate about and giving them control over those areas create greater benefits. This idea is currently being explored by Faith through re-organizing the church structure through the formation of teams as well as the increased emphasis on small group participation. It is possible with the value formula that some members may view the additional participation as a cost over a benefit. The beauty of the team structure of a church organization gives flexibility to how meetings are run, how often it runs and how long it runs lowering the cost and therefore making it a benefit. Evaluation Evaluation of value is extremely difficult because the value equation is based entirely on perceived ideas of each individual. To evaluate the value of Faith Lutheran the church can use the information gathered from the surveys about each product offered. Questions can be directed to have members address if the class was worth the time etc. A multiple choice survey along with an open ended section for personal remarks will help Faiths staff to understand members perceived value of products and programs. Without a concrete way to evaluate value the staff is left

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guessing what the congregation thought and that is when gaps occur between staff and customer perceptions and expectations. Control With increased control with service product processes value can be predicted better because many unknown factors are taken out. Since a church is entirely a service product and conducted by humans there will inevitably be issues with control. Still, staff can use the previous mentioned evaluations to analyze programs and increase control my minimizing potential problems. One of the principles of Lutheran faith is in grace and how everyone is human, when the staff and the congregation accept that it can move past it and constantly attempt to learn from mistakes and make improvements. Time Criteria In todays society time is directly tied to value both through cost and benefits. Starting at a young age even children are taught to weigh their time against costs and benefits to decide which activities to participate in. The church must lower the costs and increase the benefits of its products as much as possible so that time is not wasted and value decreased. Streamlining the church organizational structure will create efficiency within the church and also free up the time of council/board members. No Inventory Inventory and value are tied together because church is service based and once a product is gone it is gone forever. Some ways to recreate that inventory was

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discussed in the previous strategic section by recording sermons and posting documents online. With this option members can weigh their equation of value on Sunday mornings and see that if they are running late and will miss part of the sermon it will have a lower perceived cost to stay home and accomplish something else and a greater benefit to listen to the whole sermon online when they have time. Contact Points Within any organization with face-to-face communication contact points can be positive or negative. To create control over these contact points the church can once again emphasize the importance of contact with customers especially in the context of value. The way each member perceives the contact points they encounter will sway their perceived value as well. One theory that should be considered is the proximity theory that was touched on in the last sections contact points where the last contact point a customer encounters is the one they remember and a tangible final contact point is even more beneficial. By simply informing staff and volunteers of this phenomenon can help increase value by making sure that even if a staff member is exhausted after a two hour lecture that they still friendly dismiss all members that attended.

Since value of a service product is easily warped through perception Faith must do everything possible to create an experience of unquestionably high value. One way to create tangibility with value is for members to start a faith journal that gives them a record of the value they receive from participating at Faith. Another aspect that can create increased value is the restructuring of teams and council, which will make

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members more involved but give higher value through quality contribution. Restructuring the church will also help with the issue of strict time criteria that occurs currently with the board/council positions, which are rigidly fixed and require considerable amounts of commitment. Implementing regular surveys into the church structure allows the church to evaluate the value it produces as well as allows members to evaluate their experience and the value they received. Surveys also give the church an increase in control because it can review the responses and make adjustments to provide greater value in the future. Value can also be explored through the distribution of a product by how effective and efficient the process is to get the product to the consumer. Distribution Distribution is defined as the process, people and/or institutions employed to deliver the product to the customer and receive payment in return. The channel of distribution can be seen through the current chart of the organizational structure. This shows the hierarchy of power as well as how council boards relate to staff. The problem with this distribution chain is that the responsibilities of each board is becoming too much and therefore making council ineffective. The change of the process to having council as a board to discuss the big picture of Faiths future and then having teams take over ministry will make the channel of distribution more complicated but will, if designed correctly, make ministry more effective and allow for current and future growth. Intangibility Channels of distribution are extremely difficult to outline, let alone make tangible for the consumer. While the Foundational Support Ministry Team

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(FSMT) is brainstorming about changing the structure of the church process the team should create a chart of the channel of distribution to create a visual guide to how the church will run. Another side of tangibility that will be addressed with reorganizing the church is that with teams more members are given leadership roles and make them a part of the process itself rather than only being the end consumer making them a part of the channel of distribution and make it real. Inseparability It is nearly impossible to lower the customer involvement in the distribution cycle because without involvement the channel of distribution never completes. Also, a huge part of the Christian faith is in personal, face-to-face connections and making a process that lowers customer involvement takes that away. Evaluation When the FSMT develops a process to implement teams to work with ministries FSMT should continue to meet to evaluate how the process is working. As with any new system there will be problems and the team should be willing to make adjustments accordingly. Also, the new ministry teams should evaluate the system monthly or quarterly to give feedback to the FSMT. Control As with any service that involves entirely humans there will be issues of control. With the current distribution system of boards within the council there is almost too much control of defined ministry titles and unnecessary weekly

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meetings. By using teams it gives control back to each team to form the group around their passions, meet when they need to and for as long as they believe necessary. The issue of too much power given to the teams is controlled by having the teams that are, answerable to the mission and vision given to the congregation by God. That is the focus of accountability for the teams ministry. This pushes the teams to be responsible to its mission through its calling to ministry (9). Time Criteria By creating a system of ministry through teams this fixes a lot of issues of time that currently are present with existing boards. Right now, boards meet on a regular and fixed basis even if there is no pertinent task at hand. Ministry boards are always present through the current system, even if the ministry is no longer necessary or effective. With teams a group can dissolve immediately after the goal has been reached. Current board positions require a two-year commitment with numerous other time requirements that can almost equal a part-time job. Teams can last any length of time and can have numerous levels of responsibility for its members (9). These changes in levels of time involvement reduce the strict time criteria of most service product distribution channels. No Inventory With the new system of organizing in teams and the flexibility to create a team that meets whenever and however the issue of inventory can become slightly better if not resolved. The use of teams allow members to be creative in how their dependable strengths can be used to minister to others. This creativity can also be

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used in how teams communicate and work together. With todays technology based world it not necessary for people to physically be together to effectively work together. Teams can come up with the best way to accomplish their goals whether it is entirely through email, conference calls, creating a simple website for the team, or video conferencing. By abandoning the traditional rules of how committees and meetings are run it can possibly aid the issue of no inventory with service distribution. Contact Points Increased contact points can be used in the new distribution channel through teams connection with staff. The staff liaison can add another contact point for the team to use in order to create effective ministry. The current organization of boards is directly matched to a staff member, but this makes the contact point inflexible and ineffective. There is a possibility that a staff member is not needed for a board and time is wasted or the staff member is better fitted to aid another aspect of ministry on a different board. With teams it allows flexibility with the staff contact point. Also, with unique teams to implement ministry it creates more contact points with the members themselves rather than just the seven current boards/chairpersons.

By transitioning from a formal ministry based council to team based ministry allows the church to change its structure so that it is more effective and efficient. The change members involvement by having more teams that fit peoples schedules and passions. More members involved with Faiths core decisions makes the work Faith does more tangible since more members are directly involved with the decisions being made.

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The FSMT needs to constantly evaluate the new system and be flexible to adjust and make changes to that the church can work out any issues that will arise. With the new system control can be delegated to individual teams rather than the few chairs on the council boards. The new system also allows for greater flexibility in time requirements since each team has the ability to set its schedule and how it will complete its goal. Also, more contact points will be established not only through members involvement with teams but also the increase in the number of teams over number of boards gives greater contact with the overall congregation. If the new organizational structure of council/teams is planned effectively the process of communication within the church will be more efficient and effective, then communication with the rest of the congregation will also be more effective. Communication Communication is defined by all the cools that allow a company to talk to its audience. There are eight major types of communication, which are advertising, sales promotion, events and experiences, public relations and publicity, direct marketing, interactive marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and personal selling. All non-profits should stray away from advertising because it is so expensive and has so little return (13). Currently, Faith runs small advertisements at Christmas and Easter and that is perfectly appropriate advertising for a church. Faith also uses direct marketing to all of its members, has a website for interactive marketing, greeters every Sunday morning as personal selling, there are constantly events that serve as communication, and finally there is always word-of-mouth most likely good and bad. Faith must take these current

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forms of communications and revise them so they are even more effective to promote the church. Intangibility Direct mailings provide an excellent way to create tangibility of communication about the church. The cards sent out fit perfectly on the fridge to remind members of events and the newsletter offers a calendar of monthly events. The website even offers a printable version of the calendar that can be customized and can even be downloaded to almost any calendar software to go on a computer, PDA, or BlackBerry. Inseparability One advantage of many forms of communication is that that customer does not need direct contact with the company (i.e. e-mails, ads, etc.). With todays society having a comprehensive website that a member can operate for infinite uses decreases customer involvement by allowing them to access the website at their convenience. At the same time the most effective forms of communications are the ones with direct contact, like personal selling. Most churches and especially Lutheran churches are hesitant to engage in personal selling because members and staff alike do not feel comfortable trying to sell faith. Nevertheless, personal selling can be one of the most effective ways to communicate with current and potential members and gain immediate and accurate feedback directly from the source. If approached in the correct manner personal selling can be non-abrasive and can actually be an excellent way of sharing the

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ministry. One possibility to create intimate non-intimidating personal selling is to offer small focus groups that correlate with faith journals that meet either independently or facilitated by a staff member. These groups can allow people to share their journeys in non-threatening environment as well as help sell the church by creating community. Evaluation With the use of SurveyMonkey to create evaluations for nearly every aspect of programming it creates an effective system of evaluation. The use of SurveyMonkey would be considered a part of interactive marketing and forces customers to think about their experience and review what actually happened. Another effective and easy form of evaluation is once again personal selling. When approached in a non-threatening manner staff and volunteers alike can receive immediate feedback rather than attempting to evaluate members perceptions and creating a gap between what is perceived and what is actually felt. Control When it comes to uncontrolled communication word-of-mouth (WOM) seems the most unmanageable. In reality word-of-mouth can be controlled by managing what and how people think. By training employees and volunteers to provide excellent service as well as train the customer to fulfill their part of a service can allow the possibility to control an experience. One aspect of communication that must be remembered by a company is that word-of-mouth can come from not only customers but also employees and volunteers is even more effective because it

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comes from the inside. Faith can monitor WOM through the above-mentioned evaluations and make adjustments accordingly to create more satisfaction and better WOM. Taking this concept into consideration companies must take care of its employees and volunteers, not only customers. Time Criteria Similar to customer involvement with many forms of communication do not need direct contact of the customer and company. Obviously, for personal selling as well as events and experiences direct contact is necessary. Other forms of communication have more flexibility with time and can make it easier to communicate with members of the church. Interactive marketing is an innovative way to solve the time criteria problem of services communication. The church website is a step in that direction with program information as well as a calendar. Steps can be taken to increase communication that occurs with the customer by possibly creating an online community for members to have fellowship outside of church. Evaluations of programs can also be accessed through the website as well as recorded sermons and posted worksheets or notes from classes. This allows members to access and communicate with the church without the time constraints of direct contact. No Inventory The lack of inventory of personal selling of a service product is apparent but many aspects of communication do have inventories. There are specified amounts of newsletters and flyers sent out. Taking the steps stated in the previous section to

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increase interactive media allows infinite inventory of communication between the customer and the company. Contact Points By combining all of the forms of communication explored above creates a comprehensive communication toolkit for Faith to interact with members. The more contact points available, especially in different forms of media ensure that contact does occur and increases the rate of satisfaction with a customer. One specific increase in contact points would be create small group meetings to review faith journals that also aids in the objective to increase small group participation. Communication is used a number of different ways throughout Faith and can always use more improvement to be the most efficient with money spent on communication. One way to create better personal selling is by increasing customer involvement through small focus groups discussing faith diaries. Also, by having evaluations set up through SurveyMonkey interactive marketing is increased, and the church can use the information from the surveys to create more satisfaction and then better WOM. Many members do not have the free time to participate as much as they desire but by creating an online community through the churchs website time-crunched members can increase their participation. Personal communication and word of mouth are two of the most effective forms of communication for a church and both are reliant on people. If people (both staff and the congregation) are trained properly these forms of communication will significantly aid the church.

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People People are the first of three additions to the marketing mix adapted for services. Components of people include the recruiting, training, motivation, rewards and teamwork of employees as well as the education and training the customers involvement. Intangibility Because the product of a church, faith, is so abstract and intangible the people that make up the organization make the service product tangible. Everyone that is involved with ministry at Faith Lutheran needs to understand that they are the product and physically represent not only Faith the church but the Christian church in everyday life. Inseparability It is impossible to separate the people aspect of services because the interaction between humans would not exist without involvement. There is no way to decrease involvement but by proper training of both staff and customers interactions can be easier and flow smoothly. By teaching staff how to interact with members will make customer feels welcomed and at ease. One way to decrease involvement in human interactions is to create an online faith community. This would allow people to participate if/when they want to and have the option to participate as much as they would like. Evaluation As with many previous sections on evaluation using an online survey company to conduct surveys for each program will also help evaluate staffs 44

performance as well as the effectiveness of the program itself. By wording questions in a particular way can also make members evaluate their performance of taking full advantage of the program. The use of an electronic survey can create infinite possibilities for evaluating people throughout the service product process. The online community would create a form of evaluation through blogs or chat rooms where people can discuss their involvement and casually evaluate what they have experienced Control One of the major problems with services is the lack of control when it comes to human interaction. Services can be perceived in many different ways and often those perceptions go unnoticed or undocumented by the company or staff. Control can be gained in this process of human interaction by training the staff to be able to deal with any situation they may run across. Also, control can be gained when the company is aware of what the consumers desired expectations are and filling or exceeding those expectations. This gives the church control to produce what the members are looking for. The online community can give the church control because the staff can monitor what people are saying and make adjustments to better serve members. Time Criteria A strict time criterion is a huge issue when it comes to person-to-person interaction because both parties need to be present in order for the interaction to even occur. Staff can eliminate some of the problem by being available before or

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after programs to answer questions and make members feel at ease to share in ministry around them. One way to create a form of interaction at any time of day would be to create an online community through the church website that allows people to respond to comments, have chat rooms, etc. without having time restrictions of an actual meeting with staff. No Inventory The problem of inventory and intangibility are very similar issues when it comes to human interaction. There is no logical way to create an inventory of people with infinite time and skills to assist the church whenever members need it. One way to create an inventory for personal contact for members is through the faith journal because members can write down any meaningful interactions they have and remember them in their faith journey. Contact Points Contacts points are the most important and easily adjusted factor for peopleto-people interaction. Staff needs to constantly be reminded that contact points are key and need to occur with every member. Even members can take part in contact points by stepping outside the people they know and talk to every Sunday and approach an unfamiliar person making them feel welcome and perhaps becoming that critical contact point that brings them to join Faith Lutheran. Increasing contact points creates meaningful relationships and experiences for staff, volunteers, and all members. Contact points can also be increased through the

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online community because members who cannot always make it to church can gain a contact point through the internet, which may lead to more physical participation. People are essential to running a successful church because one important reason people attend church is to learn and share faith with other Christians. This interaction can be enhanced through the creation of an online community through the website that could have infinite possibilities but has possibilities of chat rooms, blogs, and/or personal profiles. Creating an online community would lower the involvement necessary for people-to-people interaction, create a casual form of evaluation, allow more control, significantly lower the time criteria of human interaction and create more contact points with members. One issue of peoples involvement in the church today is personal time restrictions and scheduling problems. This concern can be relieved through efficient processes of programming. Processes Processes are basically the steps followed in the form of different activities that are taken to produce and sell a service product to a customer. The flow of activities of a process can be either standardized or customized as well as possibly both. The number of steps can make a process either simple or complex. There are many processes that make up how a church is run from expense reports to the order of worship. Analyzing every process would be nearly impossible but one process that is in desperate need of revisions is the volunteering coordination process. Currently, the process of obtaining and organizing volunteers is through members filling out Ministry Opportunities sheets every year asking members to check boxes in

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programs they are interested in participating in. This information is then passed on to the appropriate staff or board member. The current process only takes into consideration about 100 members dependable strengths; it also does not track member volunteer records or evaluate their performance/experience. In Appendix J is a blueprint of a new process starting with individual interviews of every member to evaluate dependable strengths, passions, and what members are interested in being involved with. This information can then go into the new database that will include the interview information, past volunteering, hours logged, past evaluations, etc. Next the member is matched into a position, the position is offered, training occurs, volunteering occurs and then a final evaluation happens. This new system of volunteer management will fill the gaps that are in the current system and can still be adjusted according to problems that come up. The new system/blueprint goes along with the adjustments discussed below. Intangibility Tangibility can be created numerous ways through the volunteering process. First, by blueprinting the volunteering process staff and even members can see gaps in the routine where the process can be changed. Second, by improving the database of all of the members based on their gifts, passions, interests, past volunteer history, and continuing volunteer history gives staff and members alike a physical view of the churchs intellectual capital. Inseparability The new process to acquire volunteers makes customer involvement immensely greater because each member needs to take part in an interview. At the

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same time this can be a great thing because it show that the church cares to take the time to listen to and get to know its volunteers. The interviews give volunteers a chance to understand where their talents are best applied, which in turn can create more effective volunteers and therefore a more effective church. Evaluation There are two part of evaluation in the improved volunteering process. First is the interviewing process that will originally occur with every new member of the church and new confirmands, eventually to be conducted with the entire congregation. This first evaluation helps to establish members dependable strengths and where they are interested in volunteers to successful match them to a position. The second form of evaluation is ideally at the end of every volunteer position through SurveyMonkey. This survey can show flaws in each volunteer position, if members should be placed in the same or similar position, or if the volunteer placement program should be altered in any way. This method of evaluation at the end of each position allows not only the staff to evaluate programming but lets members reflect on their experience. Control With a human based process like volunteering, obtaining control is very difficult but necessary for a company to run well. The database gives staff control through the power of information. By conducting interviews, reviewing evaluations, and inputting volunteer information staff can see a members strengths, interests, volunteer history, average hours of participation, and their thoughts on

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each position held. Also, the database could be organized that each ministry could be viewed in the database and compared to other areas to see what the differences are in volunteer participation. Since Faith is a non-profit the church would not run without volunteers. This system would help staff gain control as well as ease the volunteering process for members. Time Criteria During the interviewing process the strict time criteria will still be present because the personal and intimate contact is necessary to reorganize the database. On the other hand, by improving the database saves a lot of time and lowers the strict time because staff can access the database at anytime through the server. This can eliminate having to find another staff member or the office manager to ask when a certain member served on a certain board. No Inventory The database is an excellent example of creating inventory for a service product. A staff member can search personal records of dependable strengths, past volunteering, thoughts as well as search for statistics for departments, or who served on a certain board a certain year. Creating a database of volunteers can be an invaluable asset to every staff member. Contact Points Interviewing church members will construct a contact point with value associated with it because that contact point has such a personal connection. By having the database to assess and assign members to fitting positions makes the

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contact points needed to create a volunteer organization more effective because calls wont be wasted on uninterested people. This more effective and efficient way of creating contact points will create value for members making it easier and more enjoyable to volunteer for the church. Creating a new system of volunteering could improve the way the church performs immensely since the church relies so heavily on volunteers to be successful. A database of members dependable strengths, interests and past volunteering activity creates a tangible record of the churchs intellectual potential through volunteers. The initial interview process gives a form of evaluation to determine dependable strengths and a very personal way to connect and check-in with members individually. The end-ofposition online surveys gives the church feedback on programming and other aspects to improve upon. The database can be set-up and organized to give vast control to staff and team leaders to view infinite amounts of information regarding volunteering records. After the initial interviews and if an efficient process of continually adding to the database is created the database can save vast amounts of time. The interview process gives a very personal contact point and the result of an appropriate match to a volunteering position will provide the church with more effective contact points overall. Contact points create tangibility by putting a face to the product and a memory to the interaction. The most tangible part of a service product/experience are the physical attributes and can greatly increase or decrease satisfaction of a product.

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Physical Attributes Physical attributes are one of the only purely tangible aspects of service products and therefore need to be effective in representing a service in a physical manner. They can be anything from facility design, equipment, signage, employee dress, reports, business cards, statements, or guarantees. Any graphic designer, artist, interior designer, or architect can tell you that proper aesthetics can make or break any company and especially a service based business. Because of this Faith should analyze its physical space and see how it affects the overall service of the church. The sanctuary and commons currently have wonderful lighting, stained glass windows, and the Dobson organ. St. Michaels Hall, both offices, and nearly all of the lower level are not very aesthetically pleasing. Although most of Faiths time and money should be allocated toward programs for the church having material aspects that are attractive create a representation of everything else Faith does. Faith should take the information gathered for the volunteer database to create two teams; one responsible for making improvements for the building and another that works with the publications coordinator on all of the publications sent out to members. These teams can use their dependable strengths to devise low budget ways (i.e. a coat of paint, better light bulbs) to create more appealing physical attributes for the church that will in the end improve the churchs effectiveness. Conclusion Faith Lutheran over the past twenty-four year has built a congregation and created programming that serves to allow members to proclaim, grow, and live in faith. There are a

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number of policies and steps that Faith follows to be an effective non-profit business. Still, Faith has room to grow and improve to further serve its members more effectively and efficiently. One way Faith can progress is to use an Internet survey service to allow members to evaluate multiple and infinite aspects of Faith Lutheran. This will allow Faith to evaluate its performance in different ways, as well as members to evaluate their experience or contribution. Also, it gives the church the possibility to gain control by understanding what people think through the evaluations. These surveys give a form of tangibility through writing about ones experience and since it is online it separates the consumer since they can complete the evaluation at any time. Another way to increase the effectiveness of a service product such as faith is for members to keep a faith journal recording revelations or thoughts made on a persons faith journey that are made during worship, classes, or even in everyday events. This creates a tangibility of the progress one is making with their faith as well as how certain programs are especially effective. This is a personal activity so the involvement level is low as well as the strictness of time criteria since it can be done at any time. The journal also gives members a chance to evaluate individually their experiences through the church. Also, it creates an inventory of previous experiences through the church. There are many other suggestions of adaptations Faith Lutheran can make to allow the church to grow into a successful service product. Changes can be made with how staff works, members work, and how the church works as a whole. By constantly evaluating the marketing strategies and adjustments and making changes to the church accordingly Faith Lutheran can grow to become a community where members commune together to create a better life and world.

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Works Cited 1. Cohen, Cynthia R., 2007 Consumer Trends, Chain Store Age Feb. 2007, p. 27. 2. Davies, Carol and Laurence Knight, Third Times a Trend, Adweek 5 Nov. 2007, p. 18. 3. Burnett, John, Lecture, 14 April 2008. 4. Millennium Communications Group, Inc., Donors of the Future: Scanning Project Report, www.givingforum.org Mar 2006. p.1-8. 5. Religious Organizations, Encyclopedia of American Industries, reproduced in Business and Company Resource Center 2008, p. 1-8. 6. Newport, Frank, Public Generally Satisfied With Role of Organized Religion in America, Gallup Poll Briefing 30 Jan. 2007, p. 8-11. 7. Brynko, Barbara. Top 10 Technology Trends, Information Today, Mar. 2006, p. 1-29. 8. Faith Lutheran Church- Homepage, http://faithlc.org. 9. Ganzel, Roger, Anatomy of a Committee and a Team, http://www.transformingchurch.com. 10. Home- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, http://www.elca.org. 11. SurveyMonkey.com, http://www.surveymonkey.com, Pricing. 12. Burnett, John, Lecture, 21 May 2008. 13. Burnett, John, Lecture 19 May 2008.

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Appendix E

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